AO – American Women Excel

This Australian Open has been a great one for American women.  Jennifer Brady, ranked 116 in the world, lost in the 4^th roiund today to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, but what a tournament she had!   She got through 3 rounds of qualifying and won another 3 in the main draw.  Coco Vandewegh, ranked 35, is in the quarters after winning a close one against Bouchard and the blitzing the world #1 Angelique Kerber.  Venus Williams, despite her advanced age, is also still in and looking very strong.  And of course, there’s Serena Williams, who had what looked like a tough draw on paper, but who has continued to win.  By the way, let’s not forget Madison Keys, ranked 8 in the world, who couldn’t play this tournament because of arthroscopic knee surgery.  So overall, women’s tennis looks very strong in the US.

            The success of American tennis is very exciting to our TV commentators, many of whom are former American players.  But is this jingoism really important?  Who cares if Roger Federer is from Basel instead of Boston, Nadal is from Majorca instead of Montana, Djokovic is from Serbia and not Sarasota?  I think one of the really great things about tennis (and golf as well) is that it garners talent from all over the globe.  For me at least, great play is all that matters. 

The globalization of sports has only improved them.  Another example is basketball.  One of the strongest NBA teams in recent years, the San Antonio Spurs, had three starters from other countries:  Tim Duncan (St. Croix), Manu Ginobli (Argentina) and Tony Parker (France).  Did that make the Spurs any less fun to watch?

            So we should enjoy the success of American women on the WTA, but what we should most enjoy about them is that they produce great tennis for us to see. 

AO Remarkable Events

            As if a Djokovic loss to Istomin wasn’t enough, we had more surprises:

Mischa Zverev beats Murray.  What is it, sibling rivalry?  Mischa Zverev, who has had a journeyman career as a singles player, has improved his results substantially over the past few months.  Perhaps he’s trying to keep up with his younger brother Sasha.  Sasha Zverev, age 19, has risen rapidly in the ranks over the past year and appears headed for superstardom.  Suddenly, though, older brother Mischa seems to want to keep pace with Sasha.  Mischa played only challenger and future events between 2012 and 2015, but since then has been improving, and came into this Australian Open ranked 50 in the world.  He put an exclamation point on his improvement yesterday by knocking #1 Andy Murray out of the AO in four sets.  Murray seemed unable to cope with Zverev’s style, a lefty who likes to come forward.  Novak will be relieved, because if Murray had won this tournament, the rankings gap between himself and Andy would have widened substantially.   Now he remains in touch with Andy, but Novak has a lot of ranking points to defend over the next few months.

In another remarkable performance, Roger Federer beat Kei Nishikori in 5 sets.  When is Roger going to cease to amaze?  He came into this match with very little match play over the last 6 months, recovering from a knee injury, and with 35 years of hard tennis yards on him.  Nishikori, one of the world’s very best, came in match tough and playing great tennis.  Still, Roger was able to do it. 

This was a match where Roger moved amazingly well for his age and absence from play, and simply hit the ball too hard for Kei.  He also got many free points on his serve, which helped lessen the physical punishment.  The third set was won by Federer in only 26 minutes.  Roger played one loose service game in the 4^th set and lost it, but in the 5^th he quickly broke and seemed in command the rest of the way.  Nishikori took a time out for treatment of a back ailment, but appeared to move well after treatment.  I believe the time out had a little gamesmanship behind it.  I don’t think Nishikori was trying to “freeze out” Federer, but he may have been trying to buy a little time to collect his thoughts and figure out how to turn things around.  It is true that Nishikori has had a nagging back problem for years.  He was totally dominating Nadal in Madrid in 2014 before the back problem crippled him.  So the issues here might have been entirely medical and not at all psychological.

So now Federer plays Zverev.  Zverev will be fresh and has nothing to lose, but it’s hard to think of a tougher player to deal with than Federer, whose game is so diverse, and who has so much experience in big match settings.  We’ll see.

Why we Watch

            We tennis fans love watching our sport for many reasons.  We enjoy seeing the skills we struggle with at the club being practiced by the world’s best players.  We enjoy the drama as a server is poised to start a critical point in a match.  We enjoy the intense, one-on-one competition as players give everything they’ve got in a tough encounter. 

            But the emergence of Roger Federer onto the pro tour has provided yet another reason.  When Roger plays his best, with his incredibly graceful movement, phenomenal agility and heart stopping shot making, we can revel in the beauty of tennis played in another dimension.  When he harmoniously blends his diverse skills to produce one of those symphonic performances, watching him gives us a joy that transcends the thrill of competition, and allows us to experience, even if vicariously, the glory of human achievement at its highest level.  It makes us feel good just to be alive. 

            Such was the case in Roger’s third round annihilation of Thomas Berdych, a perennial top ten player who came to this tournament well prepared.  I honestly expected Federer, who has been out of competition for 6 months, and who struggled with his timing in his first two matches, to lose to the big, strong Czech.   But instead Federer put on one of his legendary displays, and left everyone in the stadium awash with admiration and gratitude at being able to be part of the experience.  Roger has done this sort of thing before, of course (see his 2009 Australian Open match with Andy Roddick, for example), but we never tire of seeing it.  It’s worth watching an entire tournament just to see a match like this. 

            An addendum.  I believe Roger Federer is the best singles volleyer (please note: I don’t think volleying in doubles and singles are exactly the same) in the world, and perhaps in the history of tennis.  Take a look at the first point of the 5-4 game in the second set if you want to see what I mean. 

Aussie Open, Early Observations

Djokovic out.  The big story, of course is the defeat of Novak Djokovic in the second round by Denis Istomin, currently ranked 117 in the world.  The match went 5 sets, and Istomin had to come from 2 sets to 1 down to win it.  There were several discernible weaknesses in Djokovic’ game that were uncharacteristic of him and that may provide insights into the decline of his dominance over the past six months.  Those weaknesses were:

1) He was slow to move out to the forehand side.  On several occasions Novak was late to balls that were hit wide to his forehand.  As a result, he was unable to set up securely for his shots, and the forehand either missed or failed to penetrate the court as well as is usually the case.

2) Poor decision making.  Novak’s shot selection was highly questionable on several occasions.  For example, he lost several points after attempting very difficult drop shots (for example, cross court droppers from 6 feet behind the base line).  Overall, his tactical skills were weaker than usual.

3) Emotional instability.  I believe psychological issues were the biggest reason Djokovic lost this match.  From the very start he was sarcastic about line calls and umpire decisions.  On one occasion he got into a heated argument with the umpire because she allowed Istomin to check a mark before deciding whether to challenge a call.  Such allowances are of course routinely made.  Novak also cheered wildly for himself when he made some good plays, (for example, a reflex volley at 2-2 in the second set), but his exuberance was out of proportion to the significance of the moment.  It almost seemed as if he was trying to convince himself that he was a great player.  He also made gestures suggesting that he was suffering from physical problems, a behavior much like that often seen from his countrywoman Jelena Jankovic.

Djokovic’ irascibility has been a constant theme since he began relinquishing his strangle hold on men’s tennis about six months ago.  The reason for his problems is of course unknown, but in my opinion, he will not be number one in the world again unless this issue is addressed.   He will certainly lose a lot of ranking points at this tournament, as he is the defending champ. 

Other observations. 

Krygios loses in 5.  Nick Kyrgios once again astounded the tennis world with a casual “tweener” in the 5^th set, with Seppi serving for the match at 6-5.  Kyrgios broke in that game to stay alive, but he hardly exhibited the competitive grit needed to gut out these difficult matches, and eventually was broken again to lose.  It may be time to start thinking that Nick is satisfied just to entertain fans with his world class skills rather than to become a dominant force on the tour.  Gael Monfils has been that way through much of his career as well.  Although Monfils has also appeared uninterested in several of his past matches, his behavior has never been quite as insulting to tennis fans as Kyrgios’.  My year end post in 2016 suggested that the behavior of Kyrgios and Bernie Tomic were things to watch in 2017.  So far Tomic, despite crowing childishly about himself on twitter, has behaved acceptably on the court.

Some strong play:  Milos Raonic has looked very strong in the early going.  He beat Gilles Muller in the second round.  Muller had won the Sydney warmup and played an outstanding match against Milos, but still lost in straight sets.  Raonic put a second serve in at 235 kph (!) in this tournament.  That is 146 mph.  If you want to see how much Raonic’ game has developed, watch the game he served at 5-6 in the third set with Muller.

            Andy Murray has also looked very good, and Alex Zverev prevailed in a first round 5- setter with Robin Haase.  That’s the kind of match Zverev must win to really move up in the ranks.  Also keep your eye on Jack Sock.  He’s looking good.

            On the women’s side, Serena Williams looks very good, as does Karolina Pliskova, who has surrendered only four games in her first two matches.  Johanna Konta also looked impressive in her dismissal of Naomi Osaka in the second round.

Federer has some issues.  Roger Federer won his first two matches, but he still looks rusty.  His footwork, upon which his timing depends, is still a bit sluggish.  He will have to improve to get past Thomas Berdych, his next opponent. 

Australian Open Outlook.

When was the last time the No. 17 seeded player faced an unseeded player in the first round on Rod Laver arena in prime time??  Such is the drawing power of Roger Federer, seeded 17 after a 6-month absence, who will play Jurgen Melzer.  Roger should win this, but the match might provide some indication of his chances to go deep in the tournament.  At the very least, Fed should go down as the most dangerous floater in the history of grand slam tennis!  Other interesting first round matches include:

The men:

Sock/Herbert:  Herbert is a good young French player with outstanding skills in doubles, and Sock is a young American looking to make a major statement in 2017.  Sock won the warmup in Aukland.   Sock has a weakness for playing low percentage tennis on big points, and that could make this match with Herbert more exciting than it should be.

Coric/Dolgopolov: Alex Dolgopolov is a talented shot maker who will probably never win a slam, and Coric is a young prospect whose luster has dipped a bit over the past several months, but who has been identified as a possible future slam winner.  This is a very important match for Borna Coric.

The women:

Bouchard/Chirico.  Chirico, the young American hopeful, will play Bouchard, the young Canadian who has “been there, done that”, with a trip to the Wimbledon final in the past, but whose career has been a roller coaster ride since the end of 2014.  This match could be close, and is a very important one indeed for Bouchard.

Crawford/Davis:  Two Americans going at it.  Crawford is a young, large woman with large shots, while Davis is a diminutive, feisty, fast player with more experience.  Davis won the Aukland warmup with a big win over Ana Konjuh.   This one could be interesting.

Halep/Rogers.  Simona Halep is one of the best players in the world, but can  be vulnerable at times, and Shelby Rogers is a very determined, hard hitting player.  Halep had better be on her toes for this one.

Konjuh/Mladenovic.  Ana Konjuh is a great young prospect, and Mladenovic is a very talented Frenchwoman.  This could be a close, dramatic match.

Bencic/S. Williams.  Serena has played very little tennis since the 2016 US Open, and Bencic is a steady professional who knows her business.  Serena has been vulnerable early in slams over the course of her career, and Belinda is no pushover.  Pay attention to this one.